Avengers: Breathe (Infinity War Major Spoilers)
by lighthouse11
Summary: SPOILERS: AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR This takes place immediately following the end of Avengers: Infinity War, and includes major spoilers.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:**

MAKOR SPOILERS. This story is set immediately after the events of the Avengers: Infinity War. There are major spoilers. You have been warned.

I am also uploading this on AO3 and Wattpad.

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, etc. These belong to Marvel.

Please read, reply, favourite, follow and enjoy! Your patronage is very much appreciated.

* * *

For a moment, no one spoke. Steve looked around at those who remained, standing in the glade. "Has anyone seen Sam?" he asked, surprised at how calm he sounded, as though Sam was just taking an awfully long time to collect the take-away or to grab his gym kit from the locker room.

"Been looking, no luck," Rhodes said. He looked at Vision's body on the ground. "I'm guessing that Wanda must be…"

"And Groot," said Rocket, kicking a stone.

"And my King," said Okoye.

"Oh, this really isn't good," said Bruce, still inside the damaged Hulkbuster suit.

"Bucky," Steve breathed, trying to push the image of Bucky turning to dust in front of him from his mind.

"Hey Steve," Natasha said, "I don't - " she swayed and stumbled.

"Woah, Nat," Steve said, grabbing hold of her before she could fall. "No. No, Natasha, are you…?" Fear and panic gripped him, certain that Natasha was about to crumble as he held her.

"I can't breathe," Natasha said, holding her chest and allowing Steve to take her weight, "I - I can't breathe…"

"Earlier she took a hit," Okoye said, using one of the beads on her bracelet to scan Natasha's body. "Most valiantly, and I am not surprised that she requires medical assistance. Once the adrenaline from the heat of battle wears off, the pain and shock sets in."

"Hey," Steve said gently, holding onto Natasha, forcing himself to breathe. "You're gunna be ok. Just, just…"

"Is it just us?" Natasha asked, every breathe like a stab in the side, ignoring Cap's comment. She looked around the group, her eyes filled with tears, "Or everyone?"

"What?"

"Are they all gone?"

The group looked around, their fear palatable, worried that at any moment they too may turn to dust.

"Yes. Half of everyone," Thor said. "It will be half of everyone."

Steve realised what Natasha was thinking. Clint. Scott. Fury. Hill. What about those off-world? Tony? Pepper? What about the princess? The President? Steve could feel the others looking at him. "We've got work to do."

"We must return to the city," Okoye said. "Try to keep order in Wakanda. In the world. People will be afraid. We must do what we can."

"You are a captain?" Thor asked.

"You have a problem with that?" Okoye asked.

"On the contrary," said Thor, allowing himself a small smile. "You quite remind me of my mother."

…

Some hours later, as evening became night, Steve found himself sitting in the mess hall alone. The Princess Shuri, the Dowager Queen and the surviving members of Wakanda's executive leadership were locked behind closed doors, with orders coming out at irregular intervals. Okoye was commanding what remained of the Wakandian armed forces to assist with clean-up and peace-keeping. Bruce had been seconded to the science division, Rhodes was working alongside Okoye in peace keeping. Goodness only knew where Thor and Rocket had gone. Most media channels were completely shut down. There was still BBC World News of course, and Al Jazeera. These were being shown on alternate screens around the mess hall, running lists of names of those who were missing. Gone. Lost. Dust. Whatever word people wanted to use. Thor had been right. It was half of the population of the planet. Just gone.

 _This isn't real._ Steve couldn't believe it. Somehow, it felt fake. Like they'd been dumped in alternate reality. He'd spent the past hour queuing up alongside other warriors who were well enough to stand, but still in need of a little first aid. He'd seen a nurse who gave him a tube of cream for his wounds, checked him for concussion, and sent him to shower, change and eat. He'd taken a cold shower on purpose, and the cream had felt cool on the split on his forehead, and the other cuts and bruises he'd acquired.

Steve almost inhaled hearty meat and rice dish he was served, trying to remember the last proper meal he'd had. He half wished he could ask someone what was in this, because it really was very nice, but he felt the few Wakandian soldiers also in the mess hall eyed him with suspicion, so kept his eyes and head down. Surely they must blame him. He'd brought the fight here after all, and now their king and half the population of the planet was gone.

Steve placed his empty bowl on in the pile, and cutlery in the tray, and left the cafeteria. He wanted Bucky. He wanted Sam. Hell, even Tony. He wanted to pull his people to him, close ranks, keep them all tight. Close. Safe. He couldn't save them. He hadn't saved them. Had he made things worse? There was nothing he could do. Steve clenched his fists, digging his nails into his palms. He forced himself to breathe. He couldn't mourn yet. This wasn't real. Breathe.

Natasha.

With a sudden increase in rooms available, the Avengers had been allotted a floor to themselves. Natasha had been seen to by a doctor, and hadn't left her room. Two cracked ribs, cracked shoulder blade, bruised hip bone, assorted cuts and bruises. Thanos hadn't exactly been gentle when burying her in the mound of ruble, but he hadn't killed her either. He hadn't killed any of them, and he could have. Steve knocked on the open door.

"Nat?"

The lights were off, but the light from the hallway was bright enough for him to see in. Natasha lay curled on the bed, the blankets kicked off, facing away from the door. Steve flicked on the lights, closed to door and pulled a chair up to her bed.

"Turn off the lights," she mumbled.

"You ok?" Steve said, fiddling with the lighting panel until they changed from bright hospital-style fluorescent lights to a soft, golden glow.

"I've had worse."

Steve sat down. His body felt heavy. Tired. Old. "Can't be comfortable lying like that."

"It's ok. Hurts less than the other pain."

"Not sure that's healthy."

"Not sure it's right."

Natasha made a noise, and Steve wasn't sure if it was a sigh or a sob. She looked so small curled up on the bed.

"It's not right," Steve said. "This - this whole Thanos thing. It isn't right. I don't know what to do, Nat. I'm in so deep… I don't know which way is up."

"I've broken my training," Natasha said. "I broke it joining the Avengers. I let you all in. I let myself feel - "

"Nat…"

"I was trained not to. For years. That was the point of the program. Do the job, don't let it touch you. Because it hurts. It hurts so much, and you…" Natasha trailed off. "I'm scared, Steve. I'm so scared."

Steve didn't know what to say to her. If he was honest with himself, he'd come here hoping for her to comfort him. To tell him that it was going to be ok. That they'd get Bucky back. Steve had lost Bucky too many times before, he refused to believe he was gone again. Not now. Not when things were starting to look up.

"It's normal to feel that way, Natasha."

"Not for me."

Right not, Natasha needed him more than he needed her. He might not be needed to help Wakanda, or save the world, or save his friends, but he could damn well help her.

"Most communications are down," Steve said, "It's hard to get specifics. I have heard from Scott Lang though. He and Hope are all right. That was about an hour ago. He hadn't heard about his daughter, so it's fair to say he sounded kinda stressed, but at least we know he's out there. Helping."

Natasha didn't respond.

"Nothing from Fury or Hill," Steve continued. This felt good. It felt right. Debriefing. "So probably assume the worst there. Pepper has called about half a dozen times. Apparently New York is total chaos. She wanted to know if we could help, but it could be days before we can get clearance to fly. Only two reported commercial plane crashes worldwide, so all things considered, I guess that's something."

"Clint?" Natasha swallowed.

Steve sighed. "Nothing yet. Pepper said some phone providers are completely out, so if Clint's with one of them…"

"He'd find a way…"

"Give him time," Steve said, thinking of more people. Former SHIELD staff. People he'd see running in DC. The bored concierge at their last hotel. "He's probably out there saving his town, his - "

"Five of them. Two or three will be gone."

Steve bit his lip and pushed down the feeling. He couldn't think about the Barton family. Those kids. There must be a gym here somewhere. Things he could punch. This isn't real, though. Something isn't right. It's not real. "Sit up."

"What?"

"Sit up," Steve said, standing up, then sat down on the bed beside Natasha. She pushed herself up, rolled over, and leant into him. Steve wrapped his arms around her. Natasha closed her eyes.

"They're pretty amazing here," she said, her head against Steve's chest.

"I know," Steve said.

"I'm half wrapped in these bright green bandages, and they feel amazing," Natasha said, "My hip is taped up in highlighter-pink tape, and it feels warm. The tape, that it. Apparently there's painkillers in the bandages. Plus they stop swelling and bruising and help with circulation and about half a dozen other things but I gotta say I wasn't entirely listening when the doctor explained. She said something about a machine to heal bones, but everyone qualified to operate it is either missing or occupied."

"They healed Bucky," Steve said quietly.

Natasha placed her hand over his. "I keep thinking of people," she said, her voice slightly muffled with her head against his chest.

"Me too."

"I - there's someone I gotta try. I gotta call."

"Your phone should be here somewhere. Your uniform is on the table over there."

"Ok," Natasha said, but neither of them moved. Though her breath was slightly short, Steve found it comforting to feel her heart beat against him, her chest rise and fall. "I'm sorry about Bucky," she whispered.

Steve swallowed. "It's not real."

"What if it is?"

"It's not." It couldn't be. He'd drown in 'what ifs' if he allowed himself to think too much. He needed to talk to Thor. He needed to a team. Thor, Rocket - though that talking racoon almost proved his point that this wasn't real -, Rhodes, Bruce. Maybe Okoye. Maybe the princess. Shuri would want to help them. She'd want to show off. Maybe they could get Pepper to help. Maybe Scott and Hope. Surely they'd hear from Clint and somehow all his family would be just fine, and Steve would have a team, though it wouldn't be Sam or Bucky, but Nat was here, she was always here, always right where he needed her, and -

"Cap, I love you but you're squeezing me and it hurts," Natasha said.

"Oh, right," Steve said, loosening his arms, "Sorry."

"You don't have to let go. Just - I've already been squashed once today."

Natasha was perking up. That gave Steve confidence. "There's gunna be a way to fix this."

"I know."

"Want your phone?"

"I'm kinda scared it's gunna ring out."

"I can stay if you want," Steve said, wondering what was going through her mind.

Natasha nodded, "What's the current time in New York?"

"Mid afternoon."

"Ok," she untangled herself from Steve's arms and sat up properly. "Sometimes you just gotta bite the bullet and call your lawyer."


	2. Chapter 2

Steve handed Natasha her phone, closed the curtains, then came and sat back down on the chair beside her bed. Natasha unlocked the phone and opened up the contacts.

"There's a hundred reasons he might not answer," she said, as much to herself as to Steve.

"Of course," said Steve.

"A thousand, knowing Matt."

"You can always leave a message. I'm sure he'd call back. Or text him."

"He's not exactly great at replying to text messages," Natasha said, looking at the list of names of the screen. Under M was Maximoff, Wanda. And now Wanda was - Natasha looked at Steve. He was right. Something about this felt wrong. Like they were in one of those tragic Russian plays where everyone's messed up and everyone dies, but at the end the curtain comes down, the audience applauds, and the actors all go out for a drink. Natasha put down the phone, puffed up her pillows, leant back against them, crossed her legs ignoring the twang of pain in her left hip, and picked up the phone again. Steve just sat on the chair like some sort of pained statue. They'd spent the past two years hiding, running, searching. Always searching. Taking down the last of anything that could be used against Bucky. Against her. Using the shadows to make the world a safer place. It felt strange without Sam standing in the corner, leaning against the wall, biting his nails, making comments to make Steve laugh and Natasha roll her eyes, shake her head and smile.

"His provider may be down," Steve said.

"No," Natasha said, "Matt'll be with Verizon or AT&T. Only guys like Clint are with random local providers." She had to believe Clint was out there, organising food and water for his town. Making sure his kids were ok, that all the kids at school had somewhere to go, someone to pick them up. Working with local law enforcement, local council, anyone and everyone who was around. He wouldn't even think that he'd left his phone at home. Or forgot to put it on charge last night, or that it was sitting on silent in his car. Clint would be out there helping. He'd call later. He had to.

Natasha hit 'call'.

For a moment there was nothing, and Natasha's stomach turned. Then somewhere across the world, a phone starting ringing. Once, twice.

Steve closed his eyes.

Three, four rings.

Natasha could feel her heart pounding, threatening to explode out of her chest. Her ribs ached.

Five, six.

" _Hi, you've reached the voicemail box of Matthew Murdock. Sorry I can't get to the phone right now, but leave a message and I'll call you back."_

Natasha put a hand over her mouth.

"Leave a message," Steve said softly.

 _Beeep_.

Natasha swallowed. "Ah, Matt, it's - it's Natasha. Please call me back. I - I'm ok. Ok. Bye."

Steve opened his eyes.

Natasha locked her phone.

"He'll call back." Steve sounded as though he was as much trying to convince himself of that as he was her, and Natasha felt sick. She looked at the black screen of her phone, willing it to flash to life.

 _Incoming call: Matthew Murdock_

Natasha almost knocked the phone to the floor in surprise as she reach to grab it. "Matt?" she cried.

 _"_ _Where the hell are you?"_ came the response.

Natasha laughed and wiped her eyes. She looked at Steve, who nodded, and Natasha realised he could hear every word, but she didn't care. "In Wakanda. I'm safe. I'm ok."

 _"'_ _Ok' is relative."_

"I know."

 _"_ _What the hell happened, Natasha? What is going on?"_

Matt sounded scared. Terrified. The background noise also made Natasha suspect he was outside. "Oh, god, Matt. You can't see. You can't see how they just…go."

 _"_ _No shit, Natasha. People are just disappearing, and - what the hell happened?"_

Natasha looked to Steve, who mouthed 'up to you'. She took as deep a breath as she could manage, and explained as best she could. Matt listened without question or judgement. After she'd explained what had happened in Wakanda, Natasha was about to ask Matt who he'd lost, before realising she didn't want to go down that rabbit hole. She wasn't there with him, and it would be too hard over the phone. Matt didn't volunteer the information, so she assumed the worst.

Steve closed his eyes again.

 _"_ _It's nice to know that I'm not having an aneurysm. That people are disappearing. It's not just me."_ Matt said. He'd calmed down, and Natasha was grateful for that.

"Isn't that worse?" she asked, teasing as much as she dared.

 _"_ _Touché. What do we do now?"_

"Wanna come be an Avenger?" Natasha asked.

Steve gave a half smile. Natasha blinked back tears.

 _"_ _I hate the way you always sound so sincere, but I can't tell if you are unless you're here."_

"Oh Matty, let's not pretend. You couldn't read me even if I was there."

 _"_ _I think I could right now."_

"Damn. I really sound that compromised?"

 _"_ _You're breathless, which makes me think you're injured. And emotional, which given the circumstances is fair enough, but it takes a lot for you to show it."_

"I am sincere about this."

There was silence for a moment. _"I don't know how I could help."_

"You'd be an extra body."

 _"_ _Oh, great. Cannon fodder."_

"You know what I mean."

 _"_ _I know,"_ Matt said. He took a deep breath. _"So, did you actually need any legal advice, or is this just a curtesy call."_

"This could be the end of everything, Matt. I'm allowed to call."

 _"_ _It's not,"_ Matt said, _"Something doesn't - feel right. I can't put my finger on it, but something's off. Like it isn't really real."_

Steve opened his eyes and looked at Natasha.

"If you wanna help, but don't know what to do," Natasha said, "Get in contact with Pepper Potts at Stark Industries."

 _"_ _Oh, yeah, sure, that'll be a great conversation. Hi, you don't know me, and the universe is probably falling apart, but I'm a blind lawyer you've never heard of and you're CEO of one of the largest companies in the world. No worries, Nat."_

"Don't be sarcastic. I'll call her. Tell her to expect you."

 _"_ _Nat, I don't want to - I'm busy with, you know…"_

"She might need a lawyer. She might not. Are you happy for me to make the call?"

Natasha could almost hear Matt thinking. _"Ok,_ " he said.

"We'll get in touch with Pepper. I - keep in touch, Matt. Please."

 _"_ _Yeah,"_ Matt said, _"You too. Maybe call me next time there's aliens to punch in NYC."_

"I'll call you tomorrow."

 _"_ _Gee, that soon. Stay safe, Nat."_

"You too. Bye."

 _"_ _Wait,"_ Matt said, and inhaled sharply.

"Yeah?"

 _"_ _I - I'm outside."_

"I can tell"

 _"_ _I've been - listening. All day."_

"… Ok?" Natasha said, and glanced at Steve, who shrugged.

 _"_ _Maybe it's nothing, but NYPD found an old-school pager beside a car registered to a certain Colonel Fury."_

"Nick," Natasha breathed, her stomach turning.

 _"_ _They shook and poked at the pager, but thought it was dead. All it showed was the image of a stylised eight-point star."_

"Ok…?"

 _"_ _Does - does that mean anything to you?"_

Natasha looked at Steve, who shrugged again. "Not currently," she said.

 _"_ _Right. Oh well. Like I said, probably nothing."_

"Probably," Natasha said. "But, ah - thanks anyway."

 _"'_ _S'ok. Well, see ya, Nat."_

"Bye." Natasha hung up and put the phone down on the bed. She stretched out her legs and sighed. Exhaustion was catching up with her, and now she just wanted to sleep.

"Guess that's confirmation, then," Steve said. "Fury wouldn't leave his car in the middle of the street and not call us."

"You reckon it was his pager?"

"You reckon your buddy does?"

Natasha picked at the sheets. "He wouldn't have mentioned it if he didn't."

"I really gotta meet that guy one day," Steve said.

"One day," said Natasha, grabbing hold of the blanket and pulling it up over her legs. She rolled onto her side to face Steve, hugging the spare pillow to try and get comfortable. "So now what?"

Steve folded his arms and lent back into the chair. "We're missing something here. Or something isn't right or - something. I can't - this isn't right. It can't be. It is not the end. We don't trade lives and we do not lose people like this. There's gunna be a way to fix this, and combined knowledge of the team is far, far greater than the sum of the parts."

"But tonight?"

"We rest. I need you to rest up. You're my deputy. I need you in top shape."

"Yes, sir," Natasha smirked.

Steve smiled. "This is not the end."

"It's one hell of a middle."

"We're going to need a mighty fine holiday once we're done."

"New Zealand," Natasha said, "Of all the places in the world, I've never been there. Any time of year it's supposed to be outstanding, but did you know you can see the Pacific from Mt Hutt ski resort?"

"I can't ski."

"I'll teach you. Or just buy you lessons so I can go on the blue and black runs while you're trying to navigate the magic carpet."

"Your idea of a holiday from all of this is a ski trip to New Zealand?" Steve asked.

"Trust me, Cap, you're gunna love it."


	3. Chapter 3

Steve found a small communal kitchen in one corner of the floor of the tower they'd been allotted, and made Natasha and himself a cup of tea, Natasha's with a spoonful of strawberry jam, and his own with a generous helping of milk, and one sugar. He found a packet of shortbread biscuits, and they had supper in Natasha's room, talking openly about the day. How they wouldn't have known what to do if Wanda had survived but Vision didn't. How the thought had crossed their minds that there were people out there they would trade in an instant if it meant getting back someone they loved, but that was the whole point, as heartbreaking as it was; they don't trade lives.

Many a night of the past couple of years, the two of them and Sam had slept in the one bed when space or temperature or both required as much, and Steve had no qualms about sleeping on the chair beside her bed tonight. Natasha was beginning to drift to sleep, and Steve had just discovered that the chair had a lever for a foot rest when the bedroom door flung open.

"See? I told ya. Shield Guy is here with Stick Girl."

"Shield Guy?" Steve asked, putting the chair back into the normal position as a number of bodies crowded the door.

"Stick Girl?" Natasha said, opening her eyes.

"The first time the Rabbit saw you," Thor said, eyeing off the open packet of biscuits, "You were fighting with a stick. And the Captain with a shield."

"Weapons are a good tool for the differentiationing for me with all youse Terrans looking the same," Rocket added.

"That's a racoon," Steve said, looking at the racoon sitting on Thor's shoulder. Rhodes and Bruce squeezed past Thor into the room.

"What is racoon?" Thor asked.

"That is one," Natasha said, propping herself up onto her good elbow, "On your shoulder."

"The Rabbit?"

"I am not a racoon!" Rocket said, "Next Terran who calls me such, I'll - "

"Terran?" Bruce asked, wondering about the context behind the cozy scene they'd just walked in on.

"Some folks use 'Earther'," Rocket said. "Stupid word. The whole galaxy calls you Terrans."

"Midgardians," Thor corrected, as though the connection should have been perfectly clear. "The correct name for this planet is Midgard, therefore the people are - "

"Ok, all right," said Rhodes, wondering not for the first time today how he'd ended up involved in all this.

"The shields around Wakanda are repaired," Bruce said, changing the subject to one he understood.

"Curfew has been enacted," Rhodes added, happy for the subject change. "The people are doing as well as can be expected. So many questions, and no answers."

"There are answers," Thor said, "There may even be ways to right this."

"How?" Steve asked, sitting forward in the chair. He passed the packet of biscuits around, noticing Thor's attention on them. Natasha forced herself to sit up.

"Thanos vanished, but I do not believe him dead," Thor said, "The Rabbit and I have been examining the resources of your planet, this city in particular, to try and find a way off. We must travel to the planet Titan, where the morons were headed, and hope some still stand. There may yet be a way to undo all of this, but we must get off Midgard."

Steve and Natasha exchanged a glance.

"What morons?" Bruce mumbled.

"What about your magic rainbow teleport?" Rhodes asked.

"The Bifrost is gone," Thor said, "The morons of the Rabbit are likely our best hope."

"And maybe Tony?" Bruce suggested.

"I can maybe make a communicator with your backward, junk-heap planet's technology. Maybe a spaceship, too. You got some of the right parts," Rocket said. "Wish I'd had that guy's arm though. That woulda been nice…"

Steve gave Rocket a sharp look, and Rocket giggled. "What?"

"Do eight-point stars mean anything to any of you?" Natasha asked, deciding that since they were all talking nonsense, she might as well add that to the mix.

"Like on a compass?" Rhodes asked.

"It probably means something in some religions," Bruce suggested.

"The symbol of the Nova Corps of Xandar is an eight-point star, and the Hala star of the Kree too has eight points," Thor said.

"But Xandar's gone kablooey, thanks to our old titan friend," Rocket said. "And pffft, like the Kree will come help."

"The Kree are an ancient and noble race, who have unfortunately have extremists amongst their number, as many do," Thor said.

"There's the wizards in New York," Bruce said, deciding that that now sounded reasonable, "Dr Strange is off-planet, whereabouts unknown, but if his assistant Wong is still around, I'm sure he'd be willing and able to help us."

"Pepper's in New York too," Steve added, "She's been in contact and wants to help. Same with Scott Lang, though he's in San Fran."

"I've got another friend in New York," Natasha said, "They might be able to team up, even if we can't get over there."

"What about FRIDAY?" Bruce asked.

"What?" Steve said.

"Tony's latest A.I. Like JARVIS 2.0, I guess. I don't know if Pepper can somehow access her."

"FRIDAY is a girl?" Rhodes asked.

"Naturally. Friday is named for my mother," Thor said proudly.

"I know Tony's A.I. systems aren't like Siri, but maybe there's some back way into the system, and if Tony's still out there, he's bound to have access to FRIDAY as well," Bruce said. "If I could get to New York, I could help Pepper. But from here, I might be able to talk her through what to do, but it would be slow. Pepper's great at what she does, but she is not an engineer."

"We need to co-ordinate," Steve said, "Thor and Rocket, start working on a communication device. And I guess a spaceship too, if that's possible. Nat, any chance we could get a photo of that star? Just in case it is something. Bruce, call Pepper and try to get something happening with FRIDAY. I'll coordinate with Scott and Wong. Okoye might be able to help us with - everything. Rhodes, see if you can get in contact with her. It's the Wakandians who are going to have anything close to the tech we need. We're gunna need all the help we can get."

"This place?" Rocket said, "Pah, this place doesn't know an valve from a regulator when it comes to spaceships."

"I have friends who are well versed in the knowledge of the universe. I believe they work in a city called Nasa," Thor said.

"You know people at NASA?" Bruce asked amazed, not sure whether to be jealous or impressed.

"Call them," Steve said, "It's worth a try."

Natasha looked around the room, then caught Steve's eye. "This all insane," she said, "But it kinda sounds a lot like the start of a plan that might just work."

Steve looked at her, then at each of the faces around the room, Rocket on Thor's shoulder, Thor looking broader than ever, Bruce awkward and confused, Rhodes generally perplexed, Natasha battered but unbroken on the bed. Steve smiled and nodded. "Avengers Assemble."


	4. Chapter 4

The Avengers discussed their plans until close to midnight, by which time all were exhausted, and Natasha had already fallen asleep. Unfortunately, they hadn't gotten far. Okoye had ended up in the Wakandan executive meeting, and had been unreachable, and curfew forced the Avengers to stay in their apartment. Natasha had spoken to Matt again, but due to his unique personal situation, he couldn't get access to the Lost Property desk at the NYPD. He'd also discovered that a number of his good friends were missing, and was dealing with that by taking up his own form of justice to protect New York. Bruce had FaceTimed Pepper, but she couldn't make heads or tales of the FRIDAY interface, and both she and Bruce were getting frustrated at the situation. Steve had told her to expect Nat's lawyer friend to call, and Pepper was grateful for that kind of help. Steve had also been in contact with Wong, though he was too tired to make much sense out of what the sorcerer told him. Thor tried to contact his acquaintances at NASA, but only Darcy answered, and she was stressed, rambling and generally unhelpful. Rocket sat on the floor, pulling apart pieces of equipment he and Thor had collected earlier, putting them back together in different configurations, and mumbling about insufficient transmitters.

The Avengers retired to their respective rooms, but Steve stayed in the chair by Natasha's side, as much because he didn't want to be alone as any need she had for him to be there. He woke at first light, and finding himself wide awake, decided to go and make the team breakfast. The fridge and cupboards in the small kitchen were well stocked, and he realised that the Wakandans must have planned to the Avengers to stay here before the battle, before everything went wrong.

Steve set about making stewed fruit and porridge, and brewed fresh coffee; keeping himself busy and his mind occupied to distract himself from the darker regions of his thoughts. They had to get back to New York as soon as possible, of that he was sure. He sipped at his coffee, stirred the porridge, checked the fruit.

He was close to going and waking someone up, anyone, even the racoon, just to have someone to talk to. Bucky couldn't be gone. Not like that. And not Sam too. Stir the porridge, check the fruit, sip coffee, repeat. The sun was beginning to rise, and the sky looked spectacular.

"I am yet to find a planet that does not have glorious sunrises," Thor said, his sudden presence causing Steve to jump. "Except for worlds with extreme atmospheres. Or that themselves are suns. Or that are in fact asteroids, and not connected to any specific solar system. Or - "

"Morning Thor," Steve said, wondering how anyone as big as the god could move as quietly as he could. Also, upon sizing Thor up, Steve wondered if the breakfast quantities would suffice. "Sleep well?"

"Well enough," Thor opened the fridge, took out the carton of orange juice, opened it, and drank it straight from the carton.

"Want a glass?" Steve suggested.

"This is fine," Thor said between gulps. Within moments he had finished it, and peered into the fridge in search of another.

"Maybe wait til the others are up," Steve suggested, putting the carton down the recycling shute. "The porridge is nearly ready, but maybe you'd like some bread and jam first?" He pushed the dark, grain-filled loaf towards Thor, who tore off a chunk and slathered it in jam. Steve shook his head and smiled to himself. Stir, check, sip.

Thor sat down at the table and ate the bread. Steve watched him.

"Hmm," Thor cast his eyes around the room.

"What?" Steve asked.

"Perhaps it is just the early morning light, or my mind is playing tricks. Allowing me to see what I want. Allowing me to feel as though this is all one elaborate trick of Loki's. I keep believing I see the light flicker in the corner of my eye, as his illusions would when they began to fade. That I shall turn and see my brother standing against the wall, doubled over as he laughs, hardly able to say 'oh brother, you should have seen your face'." Thor sighed heavily, "I want to believe…"

"Huh," Steve said. Last night, Thor had filled them in on his adventures over the past few years, finding Loki, finding Bruce, losing Loki again as Thanos came for them upon their ship. How Loki had gone back for the Tesseract when Asgard was crumbling, which had turned out to be one of the Infinity Stones. How Loki had stalled Thanos, Bruce had charged, Heimdall sent Bruce to Earth, Heimdall was killed, Loki was killed, the ship destroyed, Thor found by a team who called themselves the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Thor sighed. "What I would not give for that to be the case. I must believe he knew what he was doing. It does not make sense otherwise. Loki must have known - something. I know he can act nobly. Perhaps he was just stalling for time. Giving them as much of a chance as he could…"

"Who's, 'them'?"

"Sorry?"

"Who was Loki buying time for?" Steve asked. This was new information.

"Valkyrie and Korg."

Steve sighed, sorry he'd asked. Naturally, this was only going to get weirder.

"We only had one pod capable of making the journey," Thor said, perking up as he spoke of his friends, swallowing a mouthful of bread and wiping his mouth with his hand. "Loki, whilst posing as my father, sent Lady Sif on a errand. For all my brother's total lack of judgement, that was one moment of wisdom. Though we only have a rough estimate of Sif's whereabouts, and it's possible that she knows naught of the destruction of Asgard or what has since followed, she - I need my team, Captain. And if Sif is all that remains, then by the Allfathers I shall move planets to have her back by my side."

"Half of everyone," Steve said quietly.

"I know," Thor said, finishing the bread. "But I need this. I need her. I need to believe. Were circumstances different, in another five hundred years or so, I quite believe that Lady Sif and I would have settled down, wed, and had a good handful of strapping children; fierce girls and fearsome lads. Or perhaps the other way around, knowing their mother."

Stir, check, sip. The fruit was done, and Steve turned off the heat. He knew what Thor was feeling. Futures that had once seemed so sure, which would now never be. The Howling Commandos. Peggy. Bucky. He had to get Bucky back.

"If Lady Sif and the others are out there," Steve said, "How will they know where to find us?"

"Sif will know to aim for Midgard, knowing that I've allies here," Thor said, "Valkyrie knows that too, though it has been a millennia since she were last here. If we can get a communication device working, and I believe the Rabbit can, then we I know we can reach them."

"When we get to New York," Steve said, taking the porridge off the heat, "I'm buying you a picture book of native America animals."

"Something smells all right," Rhodes said, shuffling into the kitchen.

"Timing's not too bad either," Steve said.

"Is there any OJ?" Rhodes asked, opening the fridge.

Steve glanced at Thor, who didn't seem to notice. "Don't think so," Steve said, finding a serving spoon and bowls, "But I've made fresh coffee and the breakfast is ready."

"Did someone say coffee?" Bruce asked, looking still half-asleep. "I need about a litre, then we gotta find some way to get to New York. I've been thinking about it, and FRIDAY is still our best hope for getting in contact with Tony or anyone else he was with. I can make it work, I just need to be there in person."

"The Captain requires a bookstore," Thor said, taking his bowl of porridge and fruit.

"We need clearance to leave, first," Steve said, portioning up the last of the porridge. Though he'd used all of the oats available, the Wakandans clearly hadn't bargained on catering for an ancient norse deity.

Rocket joined them soon after, and Steve made sure to put a bowl aside for Natasha, whom he decided to let sleep. As Bruce and Rhodes started on the dishes, Natasha appeared.

"Here she is," Steve said, smiling kindly.

"Feeling ok?" Bruce asked.

Natasha shrugged and looked aside. "Still no word from Clint," she said, almost choking on the words.

Steve got up and went and gently wrapped his arms around Natasha. She lent into him. He wasn't about to let Natasha fear she was alone. "We're going to New York," Steve said firmly, "We will get clearance, and we will go today."


	5. Chapter 5

"So, you want to return to America."

Shortly after breakfast, the Avengers had been joined by Okoye and Princess Shuri, neither of whom looked as though they'd had any sleep. Unfortunately, the conversation had more or less been going in circles for the last ten minutes, and various members of the group were close to wits end, Steve included. Natasha had stayed quiet, desperate to return to the States, but fearing the worst regarding the Bartons. Besides, there were already too many cooks in the conversation, and she could see the whole situation boiling over.

"We need to access Tony Stark's tech," Bruce said, the calmest of the group.

"Mine is better," Shuri said, folding her arms.

"It probably is," Bruce said, "But it would take me weeks to learn with your systems, and we don't have that sort of timeframe. The FRIDAY system is linked to Tony's wearable tech; if he's out there, I can reach him."

"You do not have clearance to fly," Okoye said, "No unauthorised aircraft - "

"We're the Avengers," Steve said, "I'm sorry, but right now, 'authority' isn't something we can allow to stand in our way."

"Captain, have you always had issues with following orders, or is this something new?"

"You'd be surprised," Steve said, "But little sleep and losing my friends doesn't exactly help."

"Ok, everyone," Bruce said, trying to keep the peace, "Let's just - Okoye, you know we need to get back to America. Last night Rocket and Thor found a few things that look useful which we would like to take with us - "

"Take me with you," Shuri said, "I can help. I can use your backward white-people tech and - "

"No, Princess. With your brother gone, you must rule in his place." Okoye said.

"I don't want to rule. M'Baku can rule. That is not what I want."

"It is not about what you want."

"And we will be taking Vision's body," Steve said, "Again, if there is anyway to fix him…"

"I can try," Shuri insisted, ignoring Okoye. "It sounds odd, but if I can open up his head and look inside - "

"No, Princess," Okoye said.

"He was created in Tony's lab, with Tony's tech, by Tony and I, so - " Bruce added.

"This isn't fair. No one is even listening to me," Shuri cried.

"Your duty is here."

"I love your weapons, but these morons have promised me there's better comms stuff across the planet, and I wanna see it. And I promise not to take any weapons," Rocket winked. Shuri looked confused. "Damn. Still got the wrong eye, right?"

"Let me come to New York," Shuri said, looking straight at Steve.

"It's not up to me," Steve said.

"Your duty - "

"You are not my mother!" Shuri snapped at Okoye. "Maybe go and find out if Nakia is still alive or something useful like that, because you are doing nothing here but annoying me!"

"Ooh boy, this is getting awkward," Rocket muttered.

"It is encouraging to know that mine is not the only royal family with certain tensions," Thor said, as much to himself as anyone else.

"Once we're over international waters - "

"You have to cross half of Africa - "

"Who put you in charge?"

"Maybe I could fly? With my new hammer, I - "

"Oh no, we are not doing that again. Not when they have perfectly kinda crappy planes here that are better than doing that."

Natasha's phone vibrated in her pocket. She pulled it out and read: _Incoming call: Laura Barton_

"Steve!" Natasha grabbed the Captain by the arm and hurried into the hallway.

"Nat, what's - ?"

Natasha showed Steve her phone screen, then picked up. "Laura?"

There was silence for a moment, then a little voice said, _"Aunty Nat?"_

Natasha's stomach turned. "Lila? Honey, where's mommy? Where's daddy?"

 _"_ _Daddy's outside putting things in the car,"_ Lila sounded very matter-of-fact. Natasha wondered what Clint had told her.

"He's there? You can see him?"

 _"_ _Yeah. He's just at the car. Now he's waving. I'm waving too. I've got my backpack and my pyjamas and some books and my Barbie that looks like you."_

"Good girl," Natasha said, forcing herself to stay calm for Lila's sake, though her heart with in her throat. "Where's mommy and the boys?"

 _"_ _I don't know. Daddy said we have to go and visit his friends because they can help find everyone. Are you gunna be there?"_

"Me and Steve and Bruce and some of our other friends, we're coming. You'll get there before us, but we're coming. Be a good girl for daddy, and be really brave for me, ok?"

 _"_ _I'm always really brave,"_ Lila said. _"Daddy! Aunty Nat is on the phone!"_

 _"_ _Ok,"_ Clint's voice across the room, muffled through the phone, _"Go put your shoes on and go to the bathroom. You got a drink bottle in your bag?"_

 _"_ _I've got two!"_

 _"_ _Ok, well we're leaving in just a minute."_ The phone changed hands, _"Natasha, what the fuck is going on?"_ Clint asked, lowering his voice as he hissed into the phone.

"I'm sorry, Clint. I'm so sorry."

 _"_ _Shit, Nat, my wife and boys just disappeared while we were getting the kids ready for school. I can't really swear around Lila and I really just need to swear and shoot something, and god I wish I was there."_ Clint's thoughts were all over the place.

"No, you need to be with Lila."

 _"_ _Where do I go? Avengers base? Or Stark Industries?"_

"Stark Tower. Pepper's there. We're coming Clint."

 _"_ _Who've we lost?"_

"Sam, Bucky, T'Challa. Wanda and Vision." Natasha wondered how she stayed so calm listing the names.

Clint swore again.

"I'm sorry, Clint."

Clint was quiet for a moment and Natasha could hear him breathing. _"I thought you were gone too. When you didn't call."_

"I'm sorry. I - I couldn't have handled it if you hadn't picked up."

Clint sighed. _"Ditto. Do we know how to fix this?"_

"That's what we're coming back to the States to try and do. You got enough food?"

 _"_ _Yeah, I've got the car loaded up with weapons and supplies. Lila's taking this like a real trooper, but I don't think she really understands. Hell, I don't really understand. We were out late last night, checking on folks round the neighbourhood, making sure they're ok. Waiting for you to call."_

"I'm sorry. We're in Wakanda."

 _"_ _I know, BBC News Worldwide is pretty much the only thing on TV. There were reports. Sketchy as all heck, but they were something."_

"I am freaking out over here, Clint," Natasha confessed.

 _"_ _Join the club. I'll see you when you get here."_

"Stay safe, Clint. Give Lila a hug for me."

 _"_ _Will do. See you when, tonight?"_

"Hopefully."

 _"_ _Hopefully. Good. Stay alive, Nat. There's still folk left who love you too. Who need you."_

Natasha closed her eyes. "See ya soon, Clint."

 _"_ _Bye."_

The line went dead.

"You ok?" Steve asked after a moment.

"You heard?"

"Every word," Steve said gently.

Natasha pocketed her phone. "Gimme a minute." She wrapped her arms around herself, and kept her eyes shut tight, forcing herself to breathe. Clint and Lila were ok, but Laura and the boys were gone, and so were Sam and Wanda and Vision and Bucky and…

"Enough," Natasha said, standing up straight. "I will fight anyone who stands between us and getting back to New York, and I don't care that I'm injured and Okoye is probably better than me. We have to access FRIDAY. We have to find Tony. I have to see Matt and Clint. And then we have to find a damn way to fix this."


	6. Chapter 6

The sun was beginning to drop behind the Manhattan skyline as the Avengers' Quinjet approached, creating a silhouette of the concrete jungle up ahead, the clouds glowing gold. "Well, if that's not a sight for sore eyes," Steve said as much to himself as to anyone else in on board. It didn't seem to matter where he went or what he did, New York City always was and always would be home.

…

The arrival party waiting at the top of Stark Tower consisted of Pepper Potts, Clint and Lila Barton, Matt Murdock and his friend Claire Temple. Everyone was happy to see familiar faces and to meet new ones, especially under the given state of affairs, where all hands and skill-sets would likely be required. Those already at Stark Tower were less surprised about Thor's talking racoon friend than they would be under normal circumstances. Except for Lila Barton.

"Dad," Lila said, hanging off Clint's hand, as they walked back inside for dinner. "Why didn't I know that about racoons?"

"What about racoons?" Clint asked.

"Can we get one of the ones on our farm and dress it up and teach it talk? It could wear some of Nate's old clothes and look so cute."

"I - that racoon is from another planet, honey."

Lila's eyes went wide. "There's a whole planet full of talking racoons? Can we go there? Can we get one? Is there a planet full of talking ponies? Can we get one of those too?"

"What - I - Lila," Clint said, "I'm not sure…" he wasn't sure what he was trying to say. He hadn't really been sure since half his family had just vanished in front of him. Perhaps after he debriefed with the team, things would be clearer. They'd have a plan. Steve would have a plan.

"It's gunna be ok, daddy," Lila said, patting Clint on the arm, "Aunty Nat's here now. She can fix everything. And she even brought all her friends."

Clint tossed Lila's hair, and glanced back at Natasha talking to Matt and Claire. She caught his eye and smiled and Clint smiled back. If turning this into another 'Aunty Nat Saves the Day" story was what kept Lila going, then that was good enough for Clint.

Pepper had worked her own breed of magic, having ordered 20 pizzas from Ray's Pizza, and the bar fridge was full of cold beer for the team to work through. Those who had been in Wakanda briefed those who were not on what had happened, and those in America filled the others in on what had been happening there over the past 36 hours. The situation was grim, but not completely hopeless. The Avengers were now right where they wanted to be, and, fed and watered, were ready to put plans into action. Bruce went to work on the FRIDAY mainframe, Clint set about getting Lila ready for bed, Rhodes and Pepper cleaned up, Matt said he had "work to do", and the rest of the team from Wakanda went to shower and change.

Natasha asked Claire to assist her with her bandages post-shower.

"Damn, you look a lot better than you should, given the injuries," Claire said, wrapping the bright green bandages around Natasha's chest and shoulder. "The bruising should be much worse."

"Guess the princess knows her stuff," Natasha said, wincing slightly as Claire rolled the bandage over her shoulder. She's had similar injuries before, and could tell that these were healing quicker. "The doctor apologised that they weren't waterproof."

"Girl, if you can get bandages that work this well, it really doesn't matter if you need to take them off for twenty minutes to have a shower," Claire said.

Natasha watched their shadows on the wall. She was tired and jet-lagged, but she needed to do something before she went to sleep. She was also well aware that she wasn't exactly the easiest person to get along with, and yet she felt like she had known Claire for years.

"How did you meet Matt?"

"Found him beat up in a dumpster. Honestly though he was dead. You?" Claire asked.

Natasha smirked, "More or less the same."

"You know he's got some weird semi death wish, right?"

"Yep. If I ever happen to get a call from a private or unknown number, part of me always thinks that that'll be the call."

"Oh absolutely. I mean, you save one guy, next minute you're tied up in all this superhero stuff, then a bit later you're having dinner with the Avengers and have seen Black Widow without a shirt on. It's kinda insane."

"Hey Claire," Natasha said, deciding that the former-ER nurse had to be reasonably well connected, "Do you know many cops?"

…

"Misty?"

"No."

"Misty, I just - "

"No."

"Please, I just - " Claire followed Misty through the empty precinct corridor.

"Missing Persons forms are available where you first walked in."

"It's not that, it's - Luke is missing though. He - that was really, really weird. Most frightening thing I've ever seen, and I've been cornered by undead terrorist-ninjas. Misty, I just need - "

"No," Misty stopped and sighed. "Listen Claire, for god's - " she turned and saw that Claire wasn't alone.

"Hi," Natasha said. "We haven't met. Claire's filled me in, though." She held out her hand.

Misty shook it, looking Natasha up and down. "I should know you…"

"Natasha Romanov."

Misty sighed again. It had been a very long couple of days. "Ok. What the hell is going on now?"

"We believe you found a pager," Claire said, "Or, one of your good people did. It's kinda old, kinda broken, picture of a star on the screen."

"You - there's no way you should know all that."

"We need it," Natasha said.

"It's evidence."

"It's lost property," Natasha said, "It belonged to my - boss. Colonel Nick Fury. I'm here to collect it."

Misty looked at Natasha and Claire. "How the hell do you two know each other?"

"Mutual friend," Claire said. "We promise to leave you alone and let you go back to actual policing and keeping the city safe if we can please have the pager."

"No."

Natasha took a deep breath. "We will fill out the paperwork."

Misty raised and eyebrow. "Really?"

Natasha shrugged. "Claire will fill out the paperwork."

"Really?" Claire said.

"Sorry," Natasha said.

"It's fine. I'm kind of an Avenger now and if everything didn't totally suck, this would be awesome."

"I can't release the goods until the paperwork is complete," Misty said, wishing that she could trade the paperwork for a really good, hot, strong coffee.

"Then I'd better find a pen," Claire said.

"You must really need that pager," Misty said, pulling a pen out of her pocket.

Natasha leant agains the wall. "You would be amazed at the list of things we need."

…

The paperwork was less than expected, and before long Claire and Natasha were on their way back to Stark Towers.

"Is she always like that?"

"I'd say that was a good mood," Claire said. Natasha smirked. "Nah, she's good," Claire confirmed. "End of the world and she's still in the office, keeping law and order and all that. Got to give credit where it's due."

Back at the tower, Claire, Clint, Steve, Rhodes, Thor, Rocket and Bruce crowded around Natasha as she pulled the snap-lock bag out of her pocket and took out the pager.

"Symbol mean anything to anyone?" she asked.

Clint leaned forwards, checked the pager, shrugged, and leant back into the couch. Steve peered in a shook his head.

"Nope," said Rhodes, "And now I'm calling it a night. See you all in the morning."

"Nothing to me, either," Bruce said. "I'm going back down to work on FRIDAY."

"Ha," Thor smiled. "You do not know what it is?"

"Enlighten me," Natasha said, placing the pager on the coffee table, and collapsing into an armchair.

"That," Thor said, sitting on the couch, "Is the Hala star."

"Yeah," Claire said, "Gunna have to be a bit more enlightening than that."

"The symbol of the Kree," Thor said, looking at the blank faces of Natasha, Steve, Claire and Clint. "The Kree?"

"Aliens?" Clint asked.

Thor pursed his lips, "I shall give a more thorough explanation later, bur for current intents and purposes, let us say yes. And this device, it is for communications?"

"Yep," Natasha said, "It's called a pager."

"It's old," Claire said, "Like, before I even did my first nursing rounds at college old, so like, from the 90's."

"Why would Colonel Fury be sending a message to the Kree?" Thor asked.

"How would Fury know anything about these Kree?" Natasha asked.

"If there are Kree forces out there, of any number, they would be greatly appreciated. They are wonderful warriors, fierce and noble."

"So why wait til now?" Steve asked, "Earth's been in trouble before."

"Maybe they're like the eagles from Lord of the Rings," Clint suggested, "Just because shit's going down, you can't just call the eagles every time. It's gotta be proper end-of-everything-type shit."

"You need more hobbies," Natasha said. Clint shrugged and chuckled. "Do you know what Fury was doing before he got shuffled into recruitment?" she asked.

"No idea," Clint said, "The man wasn't exactly an open book."

"We're gunna need access to the SHIELD archives," Steve said.

"Didn't you put most of them on the internet?" Claire asked.

"Aren't I clever?" Natasha said.

"I dunno," said Rocket, lifting a device up onto the table, "Youse ain't as cleverer as me."

"What did you do to the pager?" Natasha asked as she looked at the table, her eyes wide. The pager was in pieces.

"What?" Rocket said, "That thing had a transmitter that could reach from here to Hala. I took it out of that broken junk, put it in here, and there you go, intergalactic comms. Why you morons didn't just give me one of those in the first place… standard Terrans. Just the sort of frutacking stupid thing Quill would do. Talk into that, listen through that, it's emergency frequency only, don't blame me, blame this backward waste heap."

Natasha, Steve, Claire, Clint and Thor all looked between Rocket and the device.

"What?" Rocket said. "You gunna use it? Push the blue button to talk."

Thor pushed the blue button."This is Thor of Asgard, currently on the planet Migard, also known as Terra or "Earth". Calling any vessels within range, but specifically seeking out Lady Sif and Valkyrie of Asgard…"

"This is so freaking cool," Claire whispered.

Natasha looked at her, and decided it couldn't hurt to let herself get caught in a little bit of Claire's enthusiasm and hope. A talking racoon had just made a communication device that could reach into deep space, which was now being operated by an ancient Norse god. "Yeah," she smiled, "It is pretty great."


	7. Chapter 7

"You get any sleep?" Steve asked, entering the lab where Bruce was working. It was just after seven o'clock, and Stark Tower was still fairly quiet, everybody having been up late. The lab smelt faintly of coffee, and a couple of empty mugs were scattered about. Vision's body lay on a table in the middle of the space, covered by a sheet. It was strange to think just how real he had become, that they were providing him with that dignity. He deserved as much.

Bruce was pulling at cables on the wall, a screwdriver between his teeth, which he removed to talk to Steve. "Three hours or so? Pepper scared the crap out of me when she appeared from nowhere at about 3am. She gave me a big telling off, because Tony's got everything in the Tower linked through here, and whatever I was doing was, ah, upsetting the electricity in their suite."

"Fair enough," Steve said, glad they had a few very good engineers on the team and this wasn't up to him. He had been fairly good at repairing radios back in the day, but nothing at this level. He hadn't been the fastest, but he'd had the patience to check every wire, every lead, to find what was broken or bent or knocked out of place. Bucky had probably been better, but lacked patience. How long ago was that? Ten years? There abouts? More? Fewer? Around the early years of the war, before America joined, the war in which they all should have died and stayed dead. Or maybe now they could live, if Steve could figure out how to fix their second chance.

 _We don't trade lives._

Steve tried not to look at the sheet on the table and think about Vision's body below it. If they brought everyone back, would that fix Vision? Could Bruce fix Vision anyway? What about Rocket or Shuri or -

"Good thing Tony's kinda dooms-day prepped in terms of coffee," Bruce said, his words bringing Steve back to the present, and Steve wasn't entirely sure Bruce hadn't been speaking for a while. He noticed that there was a coffee machine in the lab, which didn't surprise him in the slightest. "There are bags and bags of the stuff. I mean, Thor'll probably make a fair dint in it, but there's enough to last us all about a fortnight."

"Yeah," Steve said, deciding he probably needed a coffee and wondering if there were any clean mugs around. He'd spent the past hour in the gym: half an hour on the treadmill, half an hour punching the living daylights out of a few boxing bags. Rhodes had arrived just as Steve was finishing up.

"I'll get breakfast when everyone else is up," Bruce said, then stopped and stepped back. "Is everyone else up?"

"I don't think so," Steve said, wondering if he should go and wake Natasha, just to have someone he could talk openly too. She was much more relaxed now that they were here, now that she had Clint and Matt around her. Plus she'd befriended Claire, had always got on well with Pepper, and loved Lila Barton to bits. Steve felt like an outsider, a plus-one who only half knew anyone at the party.

Bruce stretched. "I'm considering asking Rocket to come and give me a hand, but I can only imagine what Tony would say if he knew there'd been a racoon in his lab."

"There's a racoon sleeping in a queen-sized bed in the guest wing," Steve said, wondering how his life had become as such that he just accepted that his Norse God friend would show up literally out of the sky with a talking racoon. "A racoon who made an interstellar communication device out of bits of things he stole."

Bruce nodded and walked over to the main computer. "Come on, FRIDAY," he said, tapping away at the keys, "Let me take the reigns, just for a few minutes."

The screens flashed.

"Is that supposed to happen?" Steve asked.

"No," Bruce said, "Well, yes. That's the system kicking me out. The whole point of personal AI is that, well, it's personal. If Tony's at home, FRIDAY is at home, but when Tony's out - "

"FRIDAY goes with him."

"Yeah," Bruce said, fiddling with more cables. "Also Tony's paranoid, so this is extremely hard to hack. And he taught himself to code, so some of his strings are just awful. Look at that one. Ugh, come on Tony. His suits are so elegant, but some of his coding is just horrible. There will be a way to do this, I just need to find it."

"Oh hey, guys," Natasha said, entering the lab, mug of coffee in hand. "Thor's making breakfast. Watching him try to work an gas cooktop is a certain form of entertainment. I don't know where Pepper keeps all this food, but Thor's cooking up a quantity of bacon and eggs that would impress Ron Swanson."

"Who's Ron Swanson?" Bruce asked, returning to the screens.

"You've never watched _Parks and Rec_?" Natasha asked.

"Even I've watched it," Steve said, feeling oddly more relaxed now that Natasha was in the room. Imagine telling his former self that, 'oh, by the way, your future confident and very close friend is a former Russian assassin'. "Ron's pretty keen on breakfast foods," Steve continued, "And there's this one guy on that show who looks exactly like Scott. It's hilarious."

"Have you heard from Scott?" Natasha asked.

"Not since we got back here," Steve said, "I'll try him again in a few hours. Still a bit early on the west coast."

"Scott is…?" Bruce asked.

"Our guy in San Fran. He's an engineer too, same with his girlfriend. Don't know if we can get them over here though."

The computers pinged and the room buzzed with static.

"Does that mean the system kicked you out again?" Steve asked.

"Ah," Bruce said, tapping cautiously at the keypad, "No. No, I think that means it worked."

"It worked?"

"Please don't sound so surprised," Bruce said as Steve and Natasha moved around to look at the screens, but it was just a long series of code. Bruce continued typing. "Umm, Tony? Tony if you can hear me, it would be super great if you can respond. Or anyone else if Tony is, umm, gone, and you're there and - "

 _"_ _-zzzst- Banner?"_

"Tony!"

 _"_ _Banner! What the - "_ The line was crackly, and Tony's voice sounded far away, but it was definitely Tony.

"Steve and Natasha are here too."

 _"_ _Oh goodie. So the gang's all back together and you're launching a rescue mission, right?"_

"I'll be right back," Steve whispered to Natasha and Bruce, and hurried out of the room.

"Tony, we - where are you?"

 _"_ _On the planet Titan, apparently. Not to be confused with the moon of Saturn."_

"Is anyone there with you?"

 _"_ _A blue robot-alien called Nebula. Apparently she's the daughter of that purple dick known as Thanos, but also one of the good guys. I dunno. I'm tired and hungry and confused. Is - what is going on?"_

"There's people who can come to get you," Natasha said, "Friend's of Thor."

 _"_ _Thor's there. Great. Any one else in my house?"_

"Like you said," Natasha said, deciding not to elaborate too much, "The gang's all here."

"Tony?!"

 _"_ _PEPPER!"_

Pepper ran into the lab, still in her dressing gown, and stood as close to the screen as possible, even though it was just lines and lines of code. "I'm right here, babe. I'm ok. We got enough people here to give everyone their own part in a remake of _Lord of the Rings_ , and they're all super-people, and I am safe, and I love you so much."

 _"_ _I love you too, Pep."_

"Thor's will contact his people and they're gunna come to get you. Just - just hang tight, ok? We're gunna bring you home."


	8. Chapter 8

Natasha, Steve, Clint and Claire had spent the past few hours scrolling through the thousands of scanned pages of SHIELD files relating to Nick Fury during the late 1980's to the mid '90's, trying to find anything connected to the Hala star image found on his pager. This was the "ass-end of spying", as Clint called it. Most of the files were very highly censored, with all but a few words per page blacked out.

"Any idea where the actual copies of these are kept?" Claire asked, scrolling past a page that contained only two 'the's, an 'of', and a 'has' that weren't blacked out.

"Probably long incinerated," Clint said. "Why can't there just be a word-search function on these?"

"Because they're scanned as picture files, not text files," Natasha said, wondering if it was worth asking Bruce to come up with an algorithm to help them search. However, after they'd spoken to Tony and had breakfast, Bruce had returned to the lab and began to see if there was any hope of repairing Vision, which surely took priority over busy work to keep the spies out of the way, while the engineers did their thing. Rocket and Thor were looking at making the Quinjet space-proof, Rhodes was giving what remained of the National Security Council as much of a briefing as he could, Pepper was single-handedly keeping the world economy from completely free falling, Matt had disappeared after breakfast, claiming that he had 'work to do', and Lila was playing with a set of Star Wars Millennium Falcon Lego which Pepper around for her that Tony had bought but hadn't got around to constructing.

"When do I get to play with the Lego?" Clint mumbled, looking across the room at Lila sprawled on the floor, pieces of Lego spread out around her.

"There's got to be something here," Steve said.

"Oh, there is," Clint said, pointing to his screen. "Right here."

"What?" Steve asked, and everyone looked up.

"And here, and here…"

"He's being sarcastic," Natasha said, and looked back at her screen.

"This is full of highly useful information," Clint went on, "Just we can't damn see any of it!"

"I think it's time for a break," Natasha said, closing her screen. She was frustrated with the situation too. She wanted something to do, and knew Clint felt the same. It was as though they were in an endless holding pattern, waiting for the ok to land and there was nothing they could do but sit tight in the meantime.

"Wait," Claire said. "I think I've actually got something."

Everyone looked at her and waited.

"Does the name Carol Danvers mean anything to any of you?"

"Afraid not," said Steve.

"Nope," said Clint.

"Is it in the document?" Natasha asked.

"Kind of," Claire said, turning her laptop around so the others could see. "It's at the top, where Fury's name has been on every other document, but instead of Fury, Nicholas J., it says Danvers, Carol S.J. There's three words in the document that aren't blacked out, none of which are helpful."

"Great," Clint said, closing his laptop and standing up, "So not only do SHIELD cross out every single word of every single one of their archived documents, they can't even file things in the right order, or pick up on their mistakes when they're scanning."

"What year is it from?" Natasha asked.

"The date on this is blacked out, and the last thing I was with a date was November, 1989. So, late '89? Early 1990?"

"Way before Clint and I were around," Natasha said.

"Around the time Bucky killed Stark's parents," Steve said.

"It's unlikely there's a connection," Natasha said. "Like Clint said, it's probably just bad filing."

Steve sighed. He didn't have many other reference points for the time period. "Is it worth running a search on this Carol Danvers?"

"She's probably just some secretary," Clint grumbled.

"Peggy was running SHIELD," Steve said.

"She was an exception," Clint said, "Very far from the rule."

"Ok," Natasha said, catching Claire's eye and deciding to intervene before the boys came to further odds, "Maybe we need to broaden our search. Someone other than Fury had to know something. Find out who Carol Danvers was. It doesn't matter if she was the tea lady or Peggy's 2IC, it won't hurt to know. But first, let's get something to eat."

"And coffee," Claire said, "A whole lotta coffee."

"Do you reckon there's a decent supply of Oreos around here? Do Tony and Pepper eat them? Come on, Lil" Clint said, heading towards the kitchen. Lila jumped up and followed him. "I bet Thor will," Clint continued, "And I'm damn gunna hoard the lot before that giant god can get to them."

"Is he…?" Claire asked.

Natasha shrugged, "No, but what can we do?"

…

Despite being hungry and angry and tired and sad, as the spaceship descended, Tony couldn't help but admire its design, the way it moved and something in his brain came alive as he began to wonder at its power source (clearly not fossil fuels), how the thrusters worked, it's navigation system, the life support, the lighting, the communications devices…

Tony and Nebula walked cautiously towards the spaceship which was smaller than the Avenger's Quinjet. Dust floated about, and the hatch opened. Obscured by the settling dust, Tony saw a huge shape emerge. Bigger than Thor, possibly even bigger than Bruce when the Other Guy took charge. Bruce, who had been missing for years, and within days of returning to Earth had successfully hacked FRIDAY. As the figure came closer and the dust settled, Tony could see that it was not a man at all.

"Hello. My name is Korg. As you can see, I am made of rocks, but don't let that intimidate you."

"Oh, for…"

"Our friend and King, Thor, sent us on a detour to collect you, his friends, and take you back to Midgard, where we will pool our resources and decide what to do next in regards to Thanos. Since peaceful negotiations with him to return half the population of the galaxy seem unlikely, and a more violent course of action will need to be taken, we - "

"Yeah, ok, great. Nice speech," Tony said, as two stunningly beautiful women, dressed in stylised armour and capes, carrying weapons that looked like they came from the wildest imaginations of the good folks at Weta Workshop stepped out of the spaceship.

"Tony Stark of Midgard. Nebula of Luphom. I am Lady Sif of Asgard, and this is Valkyrie. You are to accompany us to Midgard."

Tony exhaled. Part of him really wanted to go and check out that super amazing, albeit very small, spaceship, but he mostly just wanted to wake up from this super weird dream-within-a-dream, which had become weirder ever since he had told Pepper about the first dream about the baby.

"The pod is not meant to carry very many people," Korg said, "So it will be very cosy on the way to Midgard. Gives us all an opportunity to get to know each other quite well. I'm sure you have very interesting stories to tell about your adventures and - "

"Uh, yeah, ok," Tony said. "Does this guy have an off-switch?"

Lady Sif and Valkyrie looked at each other, and Sif raised an eyebrow, then they turned and boarded the ship.

"Right this way, Mr Tony, sir," Korg smiled.

"You coming?" Nebula asked, walking towards the plane. The Asgardian women could be seen through the window taking their seats as pilot and co-pilot, and Korg stood beside the hatch as security-cum-valet.

"Yep," Tony said, as much to himself as to Nebula, "Really regretting getting out of bed, back whenever ago it was."


	9. Chapter 9

Tony had arrived back at Stark Tower late the night before. He had no idea how far or fast they'd travelled to return to earth, and had been much too tired to ask. Arriving back at Stark Tower, Pepper had hurried him off to their suite for a shower, food and bed before he could start another civil war, which at the time Tony thought was an overreaction, but upon reflection, was very bright on her behalf, as he had felt a lot like punching Cap right in his caring, concerned face.

Now that he was home and the sun was shining on New York City, Tony would see that it was all just a bad dream. Pepper was up before him as usual. She showered and went to the kitchen. The room smelt of her perfume, the bed was warm and comfortable, and there would be no gods, wizards, racoons, aliens, spies, unknown lawyers, nurses, children, or anyone else in his house. After a decent lie-in, Tony turned up the volume to AC-DC while he dressed and shaved, then went to get himself a very, very large cup of coffee.

"Oh," Tony said, as he entered the dining room, realising that the nightmare was most likely actually true. He swallowed back the thought of having to call May Parker. All of his houseguests were seated around the table, with an additional unknown teenager sitting at the far end. "Oh, goodie. Let's add her to the 'who is that and why are they in my house?' list."

"Tony," Steve said, "This is Shuri, Princess Regent of Wakanda."

"T'Challa's sister," Natasha said.

"And she's amazingly smart, Tone," Bruce said. "Once we eat, she can help us out with Vis and…"

"Ok, cool," Tony said. "Someone refresh me. Who's who here?"

"I'm Pepper and I'm your fiancé," Pepper smirked.

"Uh huh, hilarious, Pep," Tony said, sliding into the seat at the opposite end of the table to the new girl. "Fine, you're up. Who's who."

"Mr Wong, who's some sort of wizard."

"Yeah, we've met," Tony said.

"Good morning, Mr Stark."

"Hey, Wong."

"Lady Sif and Valkyrie, Asgardians," Pepper continued, "Korg, rock-man. Thor, Asgardian. Nebula - "

"She's my end-of-the-world-buddy."

"Ok, great. Rocket, err, racoon. Princess Shuri of Wakanda, who arrived a couple of hours ago, Cap, Nat, Clint, Clint's daughter Lila, Claire, who's Matt's friend, Matt, who's Natasha's friend, Bruce and Rhodey."

"Yeah, ok, let's cancel this remark of The Brady Bunch, can we?"

"I understand that reference," Steve said.

"Reference to what?" Shuri asked.

"Sorry, you're what what? 14?" Tony said, looking at Shuri, "Did your mom sign a form to let you come on excursion here?"

"I am 18," Shuri said, "And if it makes you more comfortable, yes, my mother did grant me permission to leave the country and come to assist Captain Rogers and his friends is their attempt to right this insanity. I promised her that if I can bring back T'Challa and Nakia, then she is almost guaranteed a wedding and grandchildren. My apologies, but you are…?"

Tony looked around to check no one else had entered the room, when he realised that Shuri was talking to him. "Tony Stark. This is my house."

"I thought this is her house," Shuri said, pointing to Pepper.

"Stark Tower. Tony Stark. My house."

"12 per cent?" Pepper whispered in Tony's ear, and slipping a mug of coffee into his hands.

"We're gunna need a pre-nup," Tony muttered. "Ok then, Princess - "

"Your Royal Highness."

"Pardon?"

"You may call me Shuri, but if you wish to use forms of address, as your Asgardian friends do, then it is Your Royal Highness the first time, after that, 'ma'am' will suffice."

Tony took a deep breath. "So what brings you to New York, Shuri?"

"Your intelligent giant meerkat."

Rocket looked around. "Is that good? Is that a good thing?"

"It's a good thing," Steve said.

Rocket beamed. "I like her."

"The things he stole - "

"Uh-oh…"

" - Show great knowledge of technology, especially as he was able to manipulate them into such a device as to contact the friends of King Thor. I have a brought him a gift."

"Really?" Steve said.

" _Really?"_ Rocket asked.

"That," Shuri said, pointing outside to the solo plane she had arrived in.

"That?" Nebula said.

" _That?"_ Rocket beamed.

Shuri looked straight at Rocket. "Can you use that to make the Avengers jet space-worthy?"

"With pirate angel and rock-man to do the heavy lifting, I will make something while you Terrans digest that diluted waste-water you call coffee."

"Excellent," said Shuri. "In the mean-time, I would like to see the Vision. I have some ideas as to how to repair him. From my understanding of his capabilities, I believe we will need him."

"Of course," said Bruce.

"What happened to this being my house?" Tony asked.

"12 per cent of your house," Pepper said, taking a sip of coffee. Tony glared at her. Pepper chuckled.

"Very good," Shuri said, ignoring Tony, "Then I would like to try."

…

"We're both just putting on brave faces, right?" Natasha asked, her hands stuffed deep into her pockets as she slipped into his room after breakfast. "Brave faces? Because if you're really this in control, then damn, Steve…"

Steve exhaled. "I'm Captain America. I think there's a law against me freaking out," he said, though his face told Natasha everything she needed to know. Steve was terrified. He had no idea what he was doing. "You should be a professional poker player."

"Ha," Natasha said, sitting down on the bed and folding her arms. "Clint's lost most of his family, and it's all he can do not to break down in front of Lila. Bruce is tied up in Tony's lab, working so he doesn't have to feel anything. I guess that's why Shuri's headed down there too. Matt, I - Matt's mind is somewhere else and he won't open up. He's avoiding me. Maybe it's been too long. Maybe it's all just too much. I can't talk to any of them. And everyone else…"

"You can't tell anyone what's really going on inside," Steve said.

Natasha nodded.

Steve sat down beside her and leant forward, resting his elbows on his thighs and his head on his hands. "I can't keep losing Bucky," he said quietly. "I can't stop seeing him just - vanish. Off the train, off the helicarrier, just - into thin air… I can't keep losing him."

Natasha shuffled across, linked her arm around Steve's and leant into him. "We can't lose like this." She stared out the window at the quiet, half-empty city, where once they'd fought aliens on the streets and in the air. Now they had the Tower full of amazing people, both with and without super powers. But they were directionless, full of factions and splintering further with every new arrival. They needed something to pull them all together. "Coulson's idea," Natasha mumbled, and looked up at Steve.

Steve raised his eyebrows.

Natasha allowed herself a small smile. "See if we can fight the battles that no one else can."

"You reckon…"

"We've got about four engineers including one racoon, three gods, a handful of super-soldiers, a wizard, a nurse, a robot-alien, a dude made of rocks, Pepper Potts, and some magic weapons. Everyone's pissed and everyone's got too little too lose, and way too much to gain."

Steve looked out the window. "I guess you want me to call a meeting."

"Everyone's looking to you, Steve."

"They weren't looking to me at breakfast."

Natasha shrugged. "They needed food and coffee. I needed food and coffee. And Tony needed to be Tony. Also that is one massive dining table."

Steve chuckled and sighed. "I know. I just - I wish…"

"You don't have to be Captain America with me," Natasha said, "And - I can't be Black Widow with you. When it's just us, we gotta be Steve and Natasha. We gotta be honest sometime. I mean, there's only so many times you can walk in on someone in the bathroom and not just be on permanent first-name terms."

"Look," Steve laughed, "We spent a lot of time living in very close quarters. It was only twice. Once I thought you were Sam - "

"Doesn't make it any better…"

"And the other time I didn't realise you were still in there."

Natasha laughed, "Uh huh, sure you didn't, Cap."

"It's like walking in on my sister," Steve said, "And I don't even have a sister!"

Natasha smiled and sighed. "We'll get our brother back. And Bucky, too. All of us. Everyone."

Steve nodded. "I'm still freaking out though."

"Oh," Natasha said, "Absolutely. I think we're only in real trouble when we stop."

…

"Bruce! Tony!" Shuri called, stepping back from the screen and holding her hands up, "Something is happening and I do not think it is me."

"What's not you?" Bruce asked, coming to look at the screens.

"That is not me doing that," Shuri said, pointing to the screens. "I don't think. Did you do something?"

Bruce's eyes went wide. "Umm, something, yeah, but - what did you do?"

"Something?" Shuri said.

"Hey, Tone, come see this," Bruce said.

Tony came over and swore.

"What were you doing?" Shuri asked.

"I was - yeah. Not expecting that what I was doing to do that…"

"So which one of our things was it? Because maybe we should keep doing that," Bruce said.

"Ok," Shuri said. "Yeah, ok. So this is good?"

"I think?" Bruce said.

"It's definitely not worse," Tony said.

"Ok. Good, yeah ok. Let's call this good and keep doing what we were doing."

"Ok."

"Ok. Good."

"Good. Yeah."

They stood in front of the screens for a few more moments as it filled with a ongoing string of code:

/*Wanda*/*Wanda*/*Wanda*/*Wanda*/*Wanda*/*Wanda*/*Wanda*/*Wanda*/*Wanda*/*Wanda*/*Wanda*/*Wanda*/*Wanda*/*Wanda*/*Wanda*/*Wanda*/*Wanda*/*Wanda*/*Wanda*/*Wanda*/*Wanda*/*Wanda*/*Wanda*/

…

Everyone again gathered at the dining table for lunch. Pepper had made a quiet comment to Steve about how they were fast running out of food with this number of people in the house, but she could hopefully keep them fed for a couple more days. Lunch was three very large trays of pasta-bake, all of which had been devoured. Though almost everyone had work to return to, no one moved.

"Ok," Tony said, leaning back in his chair and folding his arms, "Clearly it's pep-talk time. Cap is all but bursting; 'So, you got your asses handed to you by a giant purple turd'."

Lila chuckled. Lady Sif had braided her hair, and she'd been following the Asgardian women around all morning, after having declared to Clint that she too would be a real-life warrior princess when she grew up. Clint couldn't find any objections.

Steve shook his head, then looked up and down the table, caught Natasha's eye, and found himself smiling. "There was an idea," he began.

Tony looked at him. "No. Nope, you are not doing this. We are not getting sentimental."

"Don't knock sentiment until you've tried it," Steve said. Natasha winked. Steve continued. "And idea called the Avengers Initiative."

"To bring together a group of remarkable people, to see if they could become something more," Natasha continued.

Tony rolled his eyes. "See if they could work together when we needed them to to fight the battles the universe never could."

"Well?" said Steve.

"Still sounds like one hell of an idea to me," Clint said, folding his arms and for the first time in days, allowing himself to feel hopeful. For Lila, who looked at him and grinned. For his family. For the team.

"Agreed with the archer," said Thor, "And I like to believe I speak for my people. There's too much to gain." Lady Sif, Valkyrie and Korg, as well as Nebula and Rocket, nodded.

"You have my support," Shuri said.

"And me," said Wong, "I've some ideas."

"Me too," Claire said. "Not ideas as such, but you lot are likely to get beat up. Can't hurt to have a medic on the sidelines."

Matt sighed, "Ok. Yeah, I - guess I'm gunna have to show you what I can do."

Natasha smiled, and caught Claire's eye, and knew that Claire knew about Matt too.

"This was Greg's idea, right?" said Pepper. "Back in the day? Then yeah, definitely."

"Same here," said Rhodes.

"I'm in," said Bruce, and smiled as he looked around the table, "Our support team might not be SHIELD, but they're sure something."

"They're spectacular," Natasha said, "I'm in all the way. Always, Steve."

"I hate you all," Tony said. "Yes. Fine. I'm in. Say the magic words, Cap."

Steve grinned. They would fix this. They would get everyone back. This was not the end. "Avengers Assemble."

* * *

 **A/N:** And cue music! And that's where I end this. I couldn't leave the Steve and crew all alone in that glade in Wakanda, and had to get the gang back together. Originally this was just going to be a little Steve and Nat Hurt/Comfort thing, but it grew and grew, but ends here. Those 3,000 words I threw down after coming out of the cinema grew into the 14,000 you see here. Hopefully this will tide everyone over until Avengers 4! Thank-you so much for all the support, it has been fantastic. I really appreciate every comment, follow and favourite. Thanks again for reading :D


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